Transcript of Literary Devices and Examples

"Her lips were red as roses, her skin as white as snow, and her hairas black as ebony." (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

Metaphor: A comparison that does not use "like" or "as"

"All the world's a stage." (Shakespeare) Making reference directly or indirecctly, to a place, historical event, popular figure, literary work, myth, work of art etc. that the reader/audience would be familiar with. If I told you my mom was a Grinch at Christmas, what would I be alluding to? The attribution of human form, nature, or characteristics to something that is not human. "Hey Diddle, Diddle, the cat and the fiddle. The cow jumped over the moon; the little dog laughed to see such sport. And the dish ran away with the spoon." Mother Goose Descriptive language that appeals to our senses i.e. helps us touch, taste, hear, see, and smell what is being described. Dramatic: The audience knows more than the characters (sometimes referred to as tragic irony) Verbal: When what is meant is the opposite of what is said. (Sarcasm) Situational: When the expectations of a particular situation are reversed. Challenge! Identify as many literary devices as you can in the following song... Hyperbole Overstatement or extreme exaggeration Metonymy Substituting the name of a concept or idea, for an object or concept closely related to it. Using a part to represent the whole. Lend me a hand = Help me

Taking over over the throne = Taking over the kingdom

Lend me your ears = Listen to me

Count heads = Count the number of people Repetition of Words Anaphora: Repeat the first word or phrase in subsequent lines

"The name Nathan strikes fist against wall,The name Isaac demented sings,The name Sarah calls out for waterFor the name Aaron that's dying of thirst" Epistrophe: repetition of a word or phrase at the end of subsequent liens Mesodiplosis: Repetition of a word or phrase in the middle of subsequent lines Repetition of Sounds Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants

"Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came" Consonance: repetiton of the middle or final consonants of important words

"Whose woods these are I think I know." Paradox A statement that seems to contain contradictory information, but with closer inspection might be true Nobody ever goes to that restaurant, it's always so busy.